Senate committee approves statewide fracking ban

Broward County commissioners outlawed fracking Tuesday, even as a fracking friendly bill continued foward progress in the state legislature. Fracking is a method of extracting underground oil by shooting liquids into the ground under high pressure.

Broward County commissioners outlawed fracking Tuesday, even as a fracking friendly bill continued foward progress in the state legislature. Fracking is a method of extracting underground oil by shooting liquids into the ground under high pressure.

A controversial method of extracting natural gas would be banned statewide under a bill approved by a Senate panel Monday.

But while the Senate is moving forward on a ban on fracking — a process whereby a mixture of water and chemicals is forced deep underground at high pressure to release natural gas — its chances look slim in the House.

Anti-fracking activists say the possibility of fracking fluids polluting groundwater is high in Florida, where slabs of limestone could make it easier for leaking chemicals from fracking sites to seep upward and pollute the aquifer that South Florida uses for drinking water.

The bill sponsor, state Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, held up a chunk of porous, 125,000-year-old limestone from Miami-Dade County and said, “This is what our state is built on, and this is the reason for this bill.”

Advocates for fracking disagree.

“You’re sending a message to the rest of the country that fracking is not good, and I think that’s the wrong message,” said Eric Hamilton, of the Florida Petroleum Council, which lobbies for fossil fuel interests. “It may not be advantageous to use it at this time, but as we find additional reservoirs, it may be a technology we can rely on. And it can be done safely.”

The bill appears to be dead on arrival in the House.

Several members of House leadership, including House Majority Leader Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, have come out against a full-scale ban, preferring a moratorium coupled with studies of fracking’s effects.

Broward County commissioners outlawed fracking Tuesday, even as a fracking friendly bill continued forward progress in the state Legislature.

The new county law was prompted by a proposal last fall for an exploratory oil well on Florida Everglades land in Broward, where Kanter Real Estate LLC has...

Broward County commissioners outlawed fracking Tuesday, even as a fracking friendly bill continued forward progress in the state Legislature.

The new county law was prompted by a proposal last fall for an exploratory oil well on Florida Everglades land in Broward, where Kanter Real Estate LLC has...

(Brittany Wallman and Dan Sweeney)

No energy company is currently fracking in the state. One company, the Texas-based Dan A. Hughes Co., carried out a similar process in early 2014. Called acid fracturing, the process involved shooting acid into the ground to release fossil fuels. The company did so without permission, and the state fined it $25,000.

The bill approved Monday would ban both traditional and acid fracking.

State Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, filed a bill Monday that would ban the practice in Florida,...

A bipartisan group of state lawmakers called for a statewide ban on fracking Tuesday, adding the heft of members of the Republican majority to what has been a years-long goal of South Florida Democrats.

State Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, filed a bill Monday that would ban the practice in Florida,...

(Dan Sweeney)

The bill represents a change of heart for Young, who supported a measure two years ago that could’ve eventually led to fracking in the state. As that bill came close to passage, Broward County outlawed fracking within county lines. Nearly 90 Florida local governments now ban the practice within their borders.